Read Daniel 5:10-17. Who told Belshazzar about Daniel? “the queen”
List all the ways she described Daniel:
“① ‘has the spirit of the holy gods in him’;
“② has ‘insight and intelligence and wisdom like that of the gods’;
“③ was appointed ‘chief of the magicians, enchanters, astrologers and diviners’;
“④ the king called him Belteshazzar;
“⑤ has ‘a keen mind and knowledge and understanding, and also the ability to interpret dreams, explain riddles and solve difficult problems.’”
☆…most commentators since the time of Josephus (first century A.D.) have identified her as the queen mother, either the wife of Nebuchadnezzar or the wife of Nabonidas. If the wife of Nebuchadnezzar, she probably was the grandmother of Belshazzar.
★ The queen referenced in verse 10 is more likely Belshazzar’s grandmother than his mother because Nebuchadnezzar’s wife stood to have far more familiarity with Daniel than the wife of Nabonidas.
605 B.C. – “Nebuchadnezzar rises, Daniel captured”
539 B.C. – “Daniel was probably about 81 years old (before the lion’s den)”
I asked you… what knot you wish God would enable you to loosen. What came to your mind?
“Perhaps how to reach my parents spiritually.”
Have you asked God to help you loosen that knot since our session together? “yes”
The queen told Belshazzar that Daniel had ‘a keen mind’. The Aramaic might be translated ‘an extraordinary spirit.’ What do you think she meant?
“Maybe that he knew things other men didn’t and could do things other men couldn’t.”
How does God describe His servant Caleb in Numbers 14:24?
“‘Caleb has a different spirit and follows Me wholeheartedly.’”
For some, the flow of the world can be easier to resist than the flow of Christian mediocrity.
As you’ve considered becoming Daniel-like in your own Babylon-world, in all honesty, whose opinions or attitudes have you dreaded most?
“mediocre Christians who might think [I’ve] gone too far”
What does Daniel‘s example in today’s lesson mean to you in your own struggle with Babylon?
“I must try harder to make the choices of integrity and self-discipline when I’m alone as much as or even more than I do when I’m with people.”
Dearest Rachel –
Even though, for both questions, there was a simple binary box to check, there was clearly a very personal connection between the opinions that you were concerned about and the knot of difficulty you had asked God if He would loosen. Your parents, were they asked by anyone else, would probably answer that “of course,” they were Christians. But if they were, you (the closest person to them apart from each other) couldn’t tell for yourself; if they truly were, they were the definition of ‘mediocre’ in terms of faith and fruit. Meanwhile, they saw you as having gone too far with your faith, as though you were part of a cult. Christianity, in their minds, shouldn’t be the be-all-and-end-all of one’s earthly life, and to make it so suggested you were in it too deeply.
At the same time, given that one’s faith determines one’s eternal destiny, why shouldn’t that be the most important thing in one’s earthly life? What other thing matters more than that? Nothing else, whether money, fame or happiness (yes, I remember that game of Careers you used to have, where we had to stack up as many points in each category in order to win the game) lasts beyond our final breath. So why should any of them be what we pursue in life? As a result, though, your folks thought a certain way about you, and you had difficulty reaching them, in order to confirm that they were heading where you were confident you were going. It’s a pity, and while you know either way by now, if it’s not a favorable outcome, there’s nothing that can be done at this point.
For what it’s worth, honey, while your parents might have looked askance upon your zeal, directed as it was at them, there were those, and still are, that remember you as having an extraordinary spirit. Maybe not one that could solve great mysteries and riddles of life, but with an enthusiasm and heart for God that not enough of us (including myself) could claim to have. As with your parents, it’s too late for this praise to find you, but it has at least outlasted you on this earth, if that means anything.
I feel like I ought to be saying something to you about today being Easter, like our sign and countersign greeting first thing in the morning, but I’ve already touched on that in the past. There’s not much more to add to that at the moment. So wish that having been said, I’ll just make my usual request that you keep an eye on me until I rise with you and Him, and wish me luck; I’m going to need it, as I don’t have that extraordinary spirit myself.
Letters to Rachel 